Somalilandsun- Towards ensuring that fair, free and transparent Somaliland presidential elections are held this November, the presence of observers is imperative.
To this effect the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom and the Bartlett Development Planning Unit has issued a call for short term election observers.
In past Somaliland elections stretching from 2002 to 2010 both international and local democratization process stakeholders have been represented by high profile observers.
The International election Observer- IEO mission to Somaliland is usually but not limited composed of International development agency Progressio, the Development Planning Unit (DPU) at University College London (UCL), and members of Somaliland Focus (UK),
Below the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Bartlett Development Planning Unit call for for international election observers.
CALL for
Following an official invitation from the government of Somaliland, an Election Observation Mission(EOM) has been established to observe the presidential elections scheduled for 13 November 2017.
The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU) at University College London (UCL) has been
commissioned by FCO to carry out this work. The EOM is fully independent of the Somaliland
authorities, and will conduct its observation activities in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, agreed at the United Nations in 2005.
Michael Walls is a senior lecturer at DPU and is leading the EOM as Chief Observer.
The mission will consist of a team of 60 observers including 6 members of the coordinating team. The remaining 54 team members will be short-term observers (STOs) and deployed throughout Somaliland on/ shortly before Election Day to observe voting, counting and the tabulation of results.
STOs will be deployed in multi-national teams of two people, under a deployment plan developed by the EOM. We aim to achieve gender balance in our activities.
There is funding available for 24 STOs, and the remaining 30 STOs will be self-funding (i.e. covering airfares, travel insurance and accommodation/expenses in Hargeisa themselves or from an employer).
We will cover the direct deployment expenses (transport, security etc.) for all observers on Election Day (13 November) itself, but self-funding STOs will have to cover their own airfares and other expenses in Hargeisa, and for all discretionary travel/expenses.
We herewith would like to invite you to apply for the role of STO for the Presidential Election 2017 in Somaliland.
Please see the requirements for the role below and further information in the Terms of
Reference in Appendix 1 located at the end of this document.
Applications must be received by 8am GMT on Friday 8
th September 2017.
Please populate the form here: https://goo.gl/forms/peTfAVGB2sLFgjlV2 If you have any questions please contact Carrie Goggin at UCL Consultants: c.goggin@uclconsultants.com
All STOs are required to be in Somaliland from 9 th to 15th November 2017 and should therefore arrive in Hargeisa, Somaliland by Wednesday 8th November and depart (at the earliest) on Thursday 16th November in the morning. An indicative STO activity schedule is provided below
A copy of this information sheet is available on the SOMALILAND FOCUS website
(www.somalilandfocus.org.uk ) and SOMALILAND ELECTION OBSERVER google group
(https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/somaliland-ieo-2017 )
The call for applications is open for one week, with the deadline being 08:00 Friday 8 September, and applications must be made through the system detailed in the call for applications.
For. Ore details and application process of the call to act as Short-Term Observers for that EOM is available below link:
Somaliland Election Observation – Invitation for application.
